LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Security firm G4S, whose
reputation was tarnished earlier this year by its failure to
provide enough guards for the London Olympic Games, said it was
fighting back thanks to strong emerging markets and new UK
contracts.

The world’s biggest security firm reported on Tuesday a pick
up in underlying revenue growth in the third quarter.

LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Imperial Tobacco has
taken a 1.2 billion-pound ($1.93 billion) writedown on its
Spanish business as the impoverished country’s smokers turn to
cheaper black market cigarettes.

The world’s fourth-largest cigarette group, which counts
Davidoff, JPS and Lambert & Butler among its brands, said its
pretax profit halved to 1.1 billion pounds in the year ending
last month, although it raised its dividend by 11 percent to
reflect higher tobacco prices.

LONDON, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Whitbread, Britain’s
biggest hotel and coffee shop operator, said sales growth would
slow over the remainder of the year after a boost from the
Olympic Games and a wet summer helped push first-half profit up
11 percent.

Whitbread, which operates Premier Inn hotels and Costa
Coffee shops, said on Tuesday that pressure on consumer spending
meant underlying sales growth would be less than the 4.3 percent
achieved in the six months to Aug. 30.

LONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Bosideng International Holdings
, China’s largest maker and distributor of down
clothing, is eyeing store openings in Milan and New York if its
first overseas venture in London proves a hit with the British
capital’s shoppers.

The group, which has over 8,000 retail outlets in China,
made its first international foray in July, opening a flagship
store in London’s South Molton Street, close to some of the
city’s most prestigious retail haunts.

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Greggs, Britain’s largest
seller of food on the go, expects its underlying sales to keep
falling for the rest of the year after quarterly trading was hit
by poor weather and recession-wary shoppers.

The company also said on Thursday next year would provide
little relief for recession-battered consumers, adding they
would likely have to pay more for breads and savouries as weak
global harvests impact on commodity prices.

LONDON (Reuters) – Mitie (MTO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) spent 111 million pounds ($178 million) on home care firm Enara on Tuesday, marking its first move into Britain’s expanding outsourced health and social care sector.

Mitie said it aimed to benefit from the UK’s ageing population and cost pressures forcing a shift from hospitals and residential care homes towards greater care in the community.

LONDON, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Support services and construction
firm Carillion is in line for potential contracts in
the Middle East worth more than 3 billion pounds ($4.82 billion)
in the next four months as infrastructure projects in the region
show signs of life.

Decisions on many Middle Eastern construction contracts have
run into planning delays on large scale developments and
financing bottlenecks due to the impact of the euro zone crisis
on banks. But Carillion said on Thursday it was hopeful of
imminent awards.

LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – British outsourcing firm Capita
said on Wednesday it had lost out on a new government
contract to run criminal records checks after the Home Office
pursued talks with a rival supplier.

The trade union representing staff under Capita’s existing
contract said the coalition government is likely to award the
deal to Tata Consultancy Services, part of India’s
salt-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group. Analysts also expected
TCS to get the nod.

LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco
managed to halt an 18-month slide in its sales, but the billion
pounds ($1.6 billion) it is spending to do so meant profits fell
by more than 10 percent in the first half, the first decline in
20 years.

The company said the 0.1 percent rise in underlying sales in
the second quarter – an improvement from the 1.5 percent fall in
the first quarter – meant its costly plan to bring customers
back by adding staff and smartening up its stores was working.

LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Tesco, Britain’s biggest
retailer, showed its fightback plan following a shock profit
warning was starting to make a difference as it stemmed sales
falls, but its performance was outshone by rival J Sainsbury
.

Tesco, the world’s third-largest retailer behind France’s
Carrefour and U.S. leader Wal-Mart, launched a 1
billion pound ($1.61 billion) recovery plan in April to reverse
a steady decline in UK market share to Wal-Mart’s Asda,
Sainsbury and Morrisons.